The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board

Perhaps it was the mood owed to the moment on the first day of camp. Maybe it was the new coping mechanism Dana Holgorsen will employs this season. We don’t know. What we do know is Holgorsen was the one who brought up special teams (woes) and punt return (problems). It wasn’t me! Or us! I even used (multiple) parenthesis here!

Nevertheless, Holgorsen’s opening press conference Monday set the tone or the table or whatever for what follows the next 12 days and then 12 (or 13!) games after that.

“You guys go ahead and write this because this is the greatest topic you like writing about,’’ Holgorsen said as his team was on the field going through pre-practice motions. “We caught punts for 25 minutes pre-practice. And we’re going to catch them for another 10 minutes here in about five minutes.’’

And then, without prompting, he combined the punt return issue with touchy subject 1A — creating turnovers. That was another bugaboo a year ago, what with WVU finishing among the worst teams in the country in doing that.

“That [catching more punts] is after the turnover circuit, which the defense is working on right now,’’ Holgorsen said. “We need to protect the ball, which offense is working on. We’ll be on that for about six minutes and then we’ll go to fielding punts for 10 minutes and working on Nick [O’Toole] punting the ball where he needs to punt the ball.’’

And then came the vintage Holgorsen sarcasm.

“That should fix all our problems,’’ he said, “and we should win a national championship based on fixing those things.’’

As you might expect, Dana Holgorsen is not often in the mood to share a wealth of details about the offense. A lot of coaches are like that, and Holgorsen’s finite system is so mimicked that there is value in secrecy, especially when it comes time to discuss how things might change from what people have grown accustom to.

We think that’s on the table this season. Holgorsen has intimated throughout this offseason he’s intrigued by mobility from the passer in his offense, that he’d probably accept a little less arm talent if the gap was closed by the quarterback’s legs. Look around the country, too. A lot of the Air Raid — and do not use those two words around Holgorsen — coaches have used nimble quarterbacks with great success. Holgorsen has one at long last in Skyler Howard, and about all Holgorsen would concede is that the Mountaineers will continue to be more multiple in 2015.

Those who know Holgorsen and his offense know also that the potential is there to see some different stuff from WVU this season.

“Dana’s a smart guy,” said Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, who hired Holgorsen to be the offensive coordinator and install his offense in 2010. “He’s going to come up with a plan as good as anybody for what he’s working with. That’s my opinion from my time spent with Dana. That’s a strength of his. I would seriously doubt they have anything less than what the quarterback can do.”

Howard started the final two games last season and played in two others and put his legs to good use for the offense. He was sacked four times in 110 pass attempts. Trickett was sacked 26 times in 419 pass attempts — about twice as frequently as Howard.

While Holgorsen didn’t want Trickett prolonging plays by escaping the pocket and thus inviting hits, Howard was encouraged and able to keep the action going and either run if he had space or throw if he had an open receiver.

“I watched him play in the bowl game and I watched him against Iowa State and he definitely keeps things alive and extends plays with his feet,” said Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury, Holgorsen’s pupil as quarterback for the Red Raiders and an assistant at Houston.

“That’s something you can do in the offense if you have a kid who can do it, but it takes a little bit of time for the offensive line and the receivers to get used to. It can be a huge factor for your offense, though. Look at the success Trevone Boykin had last year extending plays. It looks like [Howard] has a lot of that type of ability.”